Fair Game (The Rules 1)

“What do you mean, you’re calling bullshit?” He called me babe. What an asshole.

Fine. I liked that he called me babe. A lot. Not that I’d ever, ever tell him.

“We definitely should’ve kissed. Because it was fucking amazing before we were so rudely interrupted by Miss Bogus I’m Looking for the Bathroom, Whoops My Bad, Toodles.”

I start to laugh. I can’t help it. His frustration is so palpable. He hated how that girl interrupted us. I hated it too. I’d had freaking Shepard Prescott on top of me on his bed. He’d been this close to taking off my shirt. And I was going to let him. I desperately wanted to feel his hands on my bare skin. I still want to feel his hands on me.

The interruption helped me realize that what I’m doing with Shep is bad for me. As in, he’s going to leave me in a bad state. More like wreck me. He’s not the lasting kind. More like the fuck ‘em and leave ‘em type. I know this. My logical, very smart, very cautious brain knows this.

But my body lights up like a burst of flame every time he so much as looks at me with those sexy, full of mystery eyes. He touches me and I melt. And when he kisses me? Oh good lord, all of my very logical, very smart brain cells evaporate into thin air and I’m left wanting more. More, more, more.

“Why are you laughing?” He sounds cranky, which makes me laugh even harder. “It wasn’t funny. We were making progress, Jade. Before she had to ruin it.”

“You call what we were doing progress?” I call it delicious.

Wait. I so didn’t think that.

“Fuck yes, I call it progress.” He slows at a stoplight, turning to look at me. His hair is an absolute mess, sticking up everywhere. I really love his hair. And I’m the one who made that mess because I kept tugging on it while he kissed me. “Stop trying to act like you hate me. I know you don’t.”

“How do you know?” I ask warily, crossing my arms in front of my chest.

“You wouldn’t have agreed so readily earlier if you hated me.”

I don’t want you to stop.

The words I said to him ring in my brain. At that very moment, the last thing I wanted was for him to stop. And that makes me feel a little crazy. A lot on edge.

God, he frustrates me. He makes me nuts. He’s so…arrogant. So sure of himself and full of bravado. Plus, it’s not right for a guy to look so deliciously hot. More like it’s unfair.

And why is he interested in me? I don’t get it. Because he supposedly won me in a bet? Does he think I’m easy? I’m so not. I’m difficult. Extremely difficult. I think I’m sexually broken and I have no idea why.

None.

“You don’t hate me.” He settles his hand on my knee and his touch warms my skin, even through the denim of my jeans. “Just admit it, Jade.”

The light turns green and he removes his hand from my leg, turning left onto the street that leads to my dorm hall. My skin is still buzzing from his touch and I’m anxious to get out of this car. Away from Shep so I can hole up in my room, crawl into bed and yank the covers over my head where I’ll try my best to collect my thoughts. Go over what happened tonight and analyze everything.

We’re quiet again as he pulls up in front of my dorm hall and cuts the engine. I undo my seat belt, about to reach down to grab my backpack when he grabs me first, yanking me into him with so much force I have no choice but to scrabble across the center console and collapse on top of him. It’s an exact replica of our position Sunday night and I stare down at him breathlessly, my brain flailing to come up with something to say when he slips his hand across the back of my head and pulls me down to his mouth.

And then he’s kissing me. Again. His other hand is at my waist, sliding beneath my shirt and my cami to touch bare skin, burning me with his fingertips. His lips devour mine, his tongue playing a wicked game within my mouth, making me moan, making me shiver, making me wet.

God, he’s awful. He doesn’t play fair. How can I resist him when he’s kissing me like this? Touching me like this? I grind my hips against his, I can feel his erection straining beneath his jeans and I suck in a harsh breath when his hand wanders up…up…until it’s stopped by the elastic band of my shelf bra.

Stupid, stupid shelf bra.

“You still think it was a mistake?” he mutters against my mouth just before he takes my lower lip between his and sucks on it.

Holy wow, I really like it when he does that.

“Well?” he prompts when I say nothing. It’s like I can’t speak. He slips his hand out from beneath my cami and now he’s touching my chest, his fingers delicately tracing the neckline of my camisole, skimming across the tops of my breasts and I’m trembling. God, his touch feels so incredibly good…

“Answer me, Jade.” His voice is deeper. Firmer. Like he means business. “Do you still think this was a mistake?” His fingers drift lower, across my right nipple and I suck in a gasp.

“Y-yes. No. I don’t know.” His mouth stops the flow of my stupid words and I fall into the kiss, squishing myself against him so tight you couldn’t slip a piece of paper between us. I’m full on making out with Shep Prescott in his car, right in front of my dorm hall and I couldn’t give two shits about it. I’ve clearly lost my head.

Clearly.

Within minutes though he’s shoving me away from him, frustration written all over his handsome face. I whimper in protest, trying to grab onto his shirt, his neck, his shoulders but he won’t have it.

“I’m not fucking you in my car. No matter how badly I want to.” He sets me away from him. Literally picks me up, and plops me back down in the passenger seat like it was no problem and I marvel yet again at how strong he is. He looks completely unhinged. His T-shirt is wrinkled, his lips are swollen and his eyes are so dark they look almost black.

I love it. Oh my God, I love how he’s looking at me at this very moment. Like he wants to consume me. I feel the same. Exactly the same.

“Is it because you don’t want to get your leather seats dirty?” I ask, remembering what Em and Em told me. I tentatively touch my lips with shaky fingers, marveling at how swollen, how tingly they still feel. Damn him and his magical lips. I wonder if Shep would let me just make out with him for hours. Kissing is the best thing ever. Eventually, it always just leads to sex and considering I’m no sexpert, I’d rather just make out. Feel each other up. Sex always complicates it.

Kissing is the only way to go.

He starts to chuckle and I decide right there he has the sexiest laugh on the planet. “Is that what you think?”

“I’ve heard rumors.”

He raises his brows. “Rumors? About me not having sex in my car because I don’t want to ruin the leather interior?”

“Um, yeah?” I feel stupid. Again. I blame the kissing. His lips are like weapons, zapping brain cells with a single touch.

“It has nothing to do with my leather seats.” He leans over the console, dropping a kiss on the tip of my nose. “And everything to do with the fact that when I fuck you, it’s not going to be in the backseat of a cramped car. I want you naked, in my bed. So I can kiss you. Everywhere.”

“Oh.” My voice is small but my thoughts…they are filled with all sorts of images. Of me lying beneath Shep in his room. On his bed. Only this time, we’re naked. Oh my God…